Quoting: Chigurrhh
He is overpaid for what is, you are right. Fun fact, Jusso Riikola has significantly better results when used on the third pairing. You can ignore all of Jacks bad play on the Letang pairing and just look at that. He also does not fit well with Sullivan's system at all due to his poor passing and skating in transition.
And regardless of where he is used, the issues are still there. Huge negative offensively. Poor at protecting his own net due to bad awareness. This is why lots of pucks bounce off of him an into the net. He also screens his goalies.
See that giant red dot in front of the goal on the defensive end? That's where opponents are shooting when he's on the ice. These numbers all better than last year but are still abysmal. He's a negative to his own team on offense. A positive to the other team on offense.
You can look at stats like that all day. But there are realities that the numbers don't show.
Like he's playing a ton of minutes in a role he shouldn't be in, for the second year in a row.
Don't act like he isn't left out to dry there too. We all know he shouldn't be on the 1st pairing. Who the hell wants to argue that. So you take all your fancy stats and then ask yourself, how many of those numbers are coming from him being in a position he's forced to be in that he has no business being in. And what are the effects on those numbers.
His numbers before he was forced into 1st and 2nd pairing roles were some of the best on the team as far as GAoi, He was a + player on the bottom pairing. How many teams have defense man where their 3rd pairing is actually making a positive impact on the ice.
You take a guy, you throw him into a task well over his head, and then expect the world.
You're nuts.
He's been playing much harder minutes than any 3rd pairing player should ever be playing. And he hasn't totally sunk while doing it. He's stayed afloat.
No it's not perfect, clearly he shouldn't be there. But how would other teams look with their 3rd pairing guy playing 1st pairing minutes?
The truth is he was a team low for goals against on the ice when the team was healthy and he was a 3rd pairing guy.
Which is where he should be.
And while I would love to rid the team of that cap hit because it's way to much for a 3rd pairing guy. I also realize they could have much much much worse back there.
And someone like you doesn't really seem to get that. Lord knows how bad it would be if we had to have Ben Hutton or some other pickup in that position.
Could you have imagined Hunwick having to fill that role.
A 1st pairing with Hunwick would have been like playing 5v4 on the ice.
So as much as you hate on JJ, he's done ok for himself. He is not the problem you think he is.